ravelry

Remember this post back in 2009 and an earlier post in 2008 – showcasing ravelry’s most popular free online crochet and knitting patterns. Here is the updated list for 2012 … what are your thoughts? I have not included the designs that have appeared in the original 2009 list – although these patterns are still up there and the february lady sweater by pamela wynne and Saartje’s Bootees by Saartje de Bruijn (available in Dutch and English) Free Ravelry – both hold their place in the top 10. Shalom Cardigan by Meghan McFarlane is also still popular

Knitting:
1. Citron: by Hilary Smith Callis — this sweet little shawlette uses one skein of laceweight Malabrigo.
2. Turn A Square by Jared Flood is a knitted striped beanie made with worsted wool.
3. honey cowl by Madelinetosh uses a simple slip stitch pattern cowl to create a dense waffle‐like fabric.
4. Lacy Baktus by Terhi Montonen – this is a modified version of Strikkelise pattern.
5. Bandana Cowl by Purl Soho — inspired by the desire to make “effortlessly chic” even more effortless.

This article on slate “Ravelry and knitting: Why Facebook can’t match the social network for knitters” was sent to me – great must read!

+ Did you know that Ravelry was created in 2007 by Casey and Jessica Forbes, a husband-and-wife team?

+ Did you know that Ravelry has 1.4 million registered users, though only about 400,000 of those are active every month?

What makes Ravelry work so well is that, in addition to being a place to catch up with friends, it is also a boon to its users’ favorite hobby—it helps people catalog their yarn, their favorite patterns, and the stuff they’ve made or plan on making. In other words, there is something to do there.

Voting is easy! Just go to www.ravelry.com/socksummit (sign in to ravelry first) and click on a category to see all the colorways that have been submitted in that category. Look at the pretty pictures, read about what inspired the dyer, and select your favorite by clicking the “vote for this yarn” checkbox. Voting is open until August 1st, 11:59 pm Eastern time.